Skyfall earned $87 million in its first weekend here in the US, far and away the biggest opening weekend ever for a Sam Mendes movie (second best: Jarhead, $27 million) and the best ever for a James Bond film. Knowing that old poon hound, I bet he celebrated with a Heineken. An ice cold Heineken and an exotic broad to shave him.

Skyfall‘s opening crushed Quantum of Solace’s $67.5 million, which was the previous Bond record. It was also double Casino Royale‘s $40.8 million debut, which was star Daniel Craig’s first outing as the infamous spy. The debut ranks fourth on the year behind The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games, and it ranks seventh all-time in November behind two Twilight movies and four Harry Potter flicks. Including $2.2 million from Thursday’s IMAX/premium-large-format showings, the movie has already earned $90 million total.

It was a pretty good weekend for movies overall, with none of last week’s top five dropping more than 40 percent and Lincoln cleaning up in limited release. Ben Affleck’s Ahhhhgo is in its fifth weekend with its highest week-to-week drop just 34 percent.

In 15th place, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln debuted to an estimated $900,000 at 11 locations. That translates to an $81,818 per-theater average, which is second-best ever for a movie in more than 10 locations (behind Precious).

Really, Precious? Man, not even a beloved dead president can compete with Oprah.

It’s also third-highest in 2012 behind The Master and Moonrise Kingdom. The historical drama’s audience skewed male (55 percent) and much older (67 percent over the age of 35), and they awarded the movie a great “A” CinemaScore. The real test, though, comes next weekend when Lincoln attempts to reach mainstream crowds in at least 1,500 theaters. [BoxOfficeMojo]

In retrospect, it was probably a smart move of Spielberg to cut out that opening scene where Abraham Lincoln walks by the camera with his huge dong hanging out and it shows him peeing for five minutes. Getting that PG-13 really helped.

Read the rest of this entry »

In this new clip from Skyfall, which premieres in London tomorrow but won’t hit North America until November 9th, James Bond meets with his snot-nosed gadget man, Q (short for Quartermaster), previously played by Peter Burton, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Bayldon, Alec McCowen, and John Cleese, here portrayed by Ben Whishaw. He and James Bond have a meet-cute in an art gallery and basically just rip on each other about age the whole time.

BOND: You must be joking.

Q: Why, because I’m not wearing a lab coat?

BOND: Because you still have spots! [that's British talk for pimples]

Q: My complexion is hardly relevant.

BOND: Your competence is.

Q: Age is no guarantee of efficiency.

BOND: And youth is no guarantee of innovation.

You know, just your basic, good old-fashioned boner measuring. For the record, Ben Whishaw is a snot-nosed young brat of 32. Also, how come in movies, when field agents meet their new computer-whiz partners, they’re never like, “Hey! Pleased to meet you! I sure can’t wait for you to help me not die! Wanna be best friends?”

Instead, they’re always pissed it’s some young kid. “This dick-fisted whippersnapper thinks he can help me? He smells like dirty diapers and his momma’s sour breast milk! Kids! Make yourself useful and fetch my diapers and BenGay!”

“Cracking tits, wouldn’t you say, Bond?” “Too right, Q, too right.”

"No, meesair Bon, I esspec ju to gee me leeto kiss."

With Skyfall hitting the US November 9th (October 22nd if you’re in London or Belgrade), MGM has released a new international trailer. What’s an international trailer, you ask? Well, it’s like a regular trailer, but with ASIAN WRITING on it. WHOOOOAAAAOOOAAA. More importantly, we get more of this installment’s villain, Raoul Silva, played by a blond Javier Bardem, the famous, Oscar-winning wig wearer. With American Beauty‘s Sam Mendes directing, I was worried the only villain would be middle class ennui, but I’m actually detecting a lighter tone with this one (I think?). Which would be good, I think we’ve all had our fill of dark and gritty™ these past few years.

Read the rest of this entry »

"No, meessur Bon. I esspec ju to keess me."

After the jump, I’ve got the full-length trailer for Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, starring Daniel Craig and directed by American Beauty‘s Sam Mendes. This time around, Bond comes back to MI6 after having been presumed dead for a year, only to face questions about whether he’s lost a step. Considering the character would be about 100 years old by now, give or take, I’d say he looks pretty good. But I hear you can defy aging as long as you wear Omega watches, drive Aston Martins, drink Heineken, wear Armani suits, etc. Oh well, at least they got the movie made. As badly in debt as MGM was, we should be happy it’s not called “Skyyfall.”

Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to appearing in that Olympics opening ceremony… uh… piece? performance? whateveritscalled…where he skydived with the Queen, James Bond also starred in this new spot for Skyfall, which opens November 9th. With Sam Mendes directing, you might wonder if Bond’s adversary will be middle class ennui this time around, but so far it looks like your standard Bond stuff. In thirty seconds, the spot manages to show Bond on a motorcycle, in a Venice gondola, on a sailboat, driving a car, and jumping from a moving train. Probably the most James Bond-y thing he does is adjust his cufflinks after landing on the crashing train, so in case you were worried that he’d finally switched to more athletically-appropriate attire like under armour gear and some yoga pants, don’t. GRR, SUIT PARKOUR!

Read the rest of this entry »